Thursday, November 10, 2011

Why Can't The Tea Party Produce A Credible Candidate?

In 2008, the Republican Party featured several credible candidates that any American could envision in the Oval Office. The problem -- none of them were going to win a general election because being a Republican just wasn't that cool at the time.

Then Obama crashed and the Tea Party happened.

Yet, despite pushing the party to the right, the Tea Party has not been able to produce a solid candidate. The GOP is about to do what it always does: pick the relatively moderate, establishment candidate. The Tea Party's best shot at a winner was Rick Perry until it was seen that he was not so good at speaking in complete sentences. I think that one pundit captured my sentiments when he said that Perry's debate performance last night was like "watching a thoroughbred get euthanized on the track. It was shocking, grisly and impossible to look away.”

Next on the plate is a man that has no political experience at all. And it shows. His catchy economic plan has been laughed to scorn by policy wonks and economists. He freely admits that he doesn't know anything about public policy and he is proud of it. Of course, all of those traits are positives in the Tea Party. Nevertheless, Cain has no money, no organization, and a sex scandal that will insure that he never gets close to the nomination.

The Tea Party vote will likely divide between Cain, Perry, Bachmann, and Gingrich. Romney will win. And the only thing that talk radio/Tea Party leaders will be able to do about it is to encourage their people to stay home in hopes that Romney will lose so that they can blame it all on the establishment/media/insert bogeyman.

Now I have some ideas why 75% of the conservative movement can't galvanize behind a candidate to defeat somebody who only gets 25% of the vote. However, let's consider this an open forum on the subject. I would particularly be interested to hear our Tea Party readers explain their failure. Self-reflection is good for the soul.

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31 comments:

I'm not 100% sure that Romney will win. Cain has done very well in a set of Quinnipiac polls out today. He is winning FL in one poll. And the dates polled were after the accusations surfaced. Perry supporters will probably go to Cain. The only saving grace here is Newt's surge.

it's simple. Nobody can learn policy, put together a national organization and raise funds to match Obama's 1 billion dollar re-election campaign. Romney has the skills to debate and defeat Obama. It's unreal to see GOP self destruct with candidates who can't draw independent minded voters like me. They think their hatred for Obama is national but voters don't hate Obama so much to vote for a candidate like Sharon Angel, or Christine O'Donnell. Time to 'grow up' folks...party hacks are destroying our country.

So it is the "left wing" of the party that is forcing Tea Party candidates to not be credible?

Anonymous,

Your post nailed it. Independents do not hate Obama, they just want a job.

Dan,

The beauty of Herman Cain's sex scandal is that part of his support will leave because they know he can't win and part of his support will stay in order to fight the evil media. It's divide and conquer for Romney. Or at least divide.

Wrong, wrong, wrong once again : the tea - party HAS a candidate, his name is simply and clear, just like his positions and his policy, Mitt Romney is THE MAN, Mitt Romney is the one who, more than any other, could repeat tenfold the Reagan's Golden Era.

If the tea party doesn't start supporting a candidate that can actually beat Obama and have the knowledge and experience to be POTUS, they are going to lose the credibility they have gained in the last two years. First off, I joined and have participated because it was a grass roots effort that accomplished what I thought was the mission - make the politicans and public more aware of what our government was doing, and things we could do about it. I attended Rallies and went to the Restoring Honor rally in DC...and was proud to do it. I am disenchanted now since they are "endorsing". First it was all about Bachman, her ratings fell then it was Perry, well you know how that turned out. Now it is Cain, Cain, Cain. So, if you must endorse, how about someone who can actually Beat Obama? I have attached a link - all I do is ask that you take a few minutes and watch the entire video. You will see a vast difference in Mitt Romney than all other candidates. Romney answers questions using his knowledge and plans instead of platitudes and jokes to get the audience applauding. While Romney isn't the "fire on the mountain" candidate, he never bashes the other candidates and conducts himself with dignity. People who do not actually learn all they can about him, instead of just seeing the "RINO" and "Romneycare" rheotric are amazing. Cain usually voted Democrat (voted for Clinton ya know), his wife is a staunch Democrat (voted for Obama) - you want her for 1st lady? Romneycare? How many times does Romney have to say "Healthcare should be a STATE matter, not Federal, that he had a democratic house, there were things he didn't like but regardless, the Federal Government should not be involved in State Affairs (and names other funding that would be given back to the states). How many times does he have to say "I will repeal Obamacare" ??Mr. Romney is the most successful candidate in Economics, Business and Government...Bain Capital has helped create thousands of jobs, (I will post a link showing all the companies) and his term as Gov. of Mass. was fantastic. Mr. Romney is an economic genius, successful businessman, way above reproach family man, honest and humble...what more could we ask for? So why is the tea party so against him? I would guess it would be because all of the things above make him a bit more moderate - but to me, that is an asset that says he would be able to listen to both sides and make intelligent decisions, and perhaps sway others and/or compromise better than someone who demands things only one way. Again, PLEASE watch the entire video and if that peaks your interest, learn more about him...

I am sure I will get negative response to this - but please do not respond if you didn't watch the video. http://carloz.newsvine.com/_news/2011/11/06/8665928-mitt-romneys-speech-to-koch-brothers-americans-for-prosperity-video

I wouldn't say it's the Tea Party that can't produce a candidate, but rather the narrow segment of the populace I call the Talk Radio Right.

For months and even currently, Romney polls very highly among the Tea Party, which suggests they are not the monlithic group they are portrayed as. Never have been, but it's easy to exploit them that way.

The Right Wing Media needs a monolithic TP in order to control the conversation and sway the majority of GOP opinion.

The Left Wing Media needs a monolithic TP in order to castigate them and divide the Right from the Independents.

Polls consistently show the TP is a minority within the voting populace in general and the GOP in particular.

They also have very diffrent motivations for being Tea Partiers. They may not be as Conservative as the Left or Right would like to portray. Therefore they would not be able to produce a candidate. Being in the TP is more of an attitude or a held opinion of how things should be run,rather than a political party. It may well develop into such an entity, but for now it is not.

So the real question of this post should be, "Why Can't the Talk Radio Right Produce a Credible Candidate?"

All I can say is that I am shocked at how many conservative Republicans fell for the cut and paste smear videos and the quotes taken out of context put out by the Obama reelection campaign and the Perry campaigns.Axelrod is a marketing genius. He first gets Obama elected and he seems to be somewhat successful in branding Romney,the most competitive GOP candidate, as a flip flopper-unbelievable!

Our problem is spending. Romney had restructured the MA government and turned around a 3 billion deficit to a 2 billion surplus. Romney restructured companies in the private sector to make them profitable. Do you think he did this by increasing company overhead?

Romney's instincts are to cut costs and overhead like he did in MA and like he did to turn around the Olympics. The Olympics were 400 million in debt when Romney came on board and at the end the Olympics yielded a 100 million profit.

A big problem for the Talk Radio Right is the convoluted logic practiced by the Pope of Radio, Rush Limbaugh, each day.

Here is alink to Rush defending Perry's "brain freeze" and how it's Conservatives like me - who ARE INDEED stil ticked off we blew a golden op to rid ourselves of Harry Reid and control Senate - who are to blame.

Well, there have been some good Tea Party candidates. The thing is there is not one Tea Party. They are a national organization, they are a movement. And so some louder people who get more air time can promote bad candidates they know can not win...but all the more qualified candidates who came up through the Tea Party just sort of get swept up in the larger GOP. In fact, most Freshman Tea Party members of Congress voted with the leadership more often than not.

I do think there are some loud and obnoxious people that fancy themselves leaders..and those people fail to get people elected because they are out of the mainstream of rank and file Republicans. Ratings are not the same thing as votes.

Ohio Joe...Rush Limbaugh went out of his way to say that establishment candidates for the GOP in Nevada should not be elected in the primaries. Needless to say those were the people who could have beaten Reid..his attitude was that it was better to give Harry Reid another term than it was to elect someone who was not pure and true like him..

If he is going to flap his gums and say stuff like that, then he should be prepared to deal with the fact that there will be people who will think he is working with the other side.

I don't have any issues with with the Tea Party, unless you mean the Tea Party caucus or whatever they are calling that anti-Romney section of the Beltway who having been doing all they could to co-opt the Tea Party name.

The real Tea Party is just ordinary people who are against Obama's (and some of Bush's) policies which are hurting our country. They are not otherwise monolitich, and have support for many different candidates, Romney among the choices.

The astroturf version that is centrally organized and only seems to care more about making sure anyone other than Romney gets the nomination than making sure the country gets on the right track shouldn't be grouped in with the real Tea Party.

The fake Tea Party will send out emails saying things such as "Don't vote for Romney, he supported TARP! Vote for Perry (who supported TARP) or Cain (who supported TARP.)

To tell the difference between someone who is a legitimate Tea Party American and someone who's a fake, find out of the person is making money off of the Tea Party name.

Terrye answered your question to me, for me. He decided to can the "Buckley Rule" - elect the most conservative with a chance of winning - for the new "Limbaugh Rule" - elect a Conservative PERIOD. Doesn't matter if they a viable candidate or not, just run them and damn the winning. Then you lose you blame "the Establishment" for not supporting these losers. Then pounding this into little skulls full of mush each day, until it becomes gospel.

That, my dear fellow, is how Rush Limbaugh is to blame. Blame he won't man uip to and still to this day defends. Check out his site today and his impotent defense of Perry.

And then fringers want to wear this stubborn lunacy as a badge of Conservative honor.

The Tea Party was originally a fiscal-conservative movement that placed Americas economic sustainability above every other political issue. Then the populist high jacked it.

The Tea Party use to preach the values of Rand and Hayek, individualism and free markets, but they have long since traded in those values for the empty rhetoric and hyperbole of Palin and Beck.

Members of this new bastardized version of the Tea Party seem to think they're more conservative than the rest of us, that somehow we fiscal conservatives are the "left wing" of the party. They call us RINO and "establishment" (with little understanding of what either means)because we tend to support Mitt Romney, the most viable fiscal-conservative running.

But We are not the "left wing" of the party, we're fiscal conservatives, and we were the Tea Party before the Tea Party was cool.

In many ways you are the real Republicans. I get so tired of hearing the loud mouths on the radio yak about RINOs...when in fact they are the people who are not the real Republicans. The real Republicans are not extreme or hysterical or immune to bipartisanship. They can compromise if they must and they are capable of governing in a way that reflects the will and the needs of all the people.

And those are the people that guys like Limbaugh and Beck and Levin want to run out of the party..They know that if they try and create a whole new party..say the True Conservative party...they will get their asses handed to them. But what they fail to understand is that the Republican party is not a movement..it is in fact a political party. And political parties have to win elections if they are to survive.

"Terrye answered your question to me, for me." Wrong!! To be blunt, you both have shown your ignorance, neither Mr. Limbaugh or Mrs. Palin endorsed Miss. Angle in the primary (though members or the party did.) In fact they endorsed Mrs. Lowden. However, fact do not matter, why do research on either Mr. Limbaugh and Mrs. Palin when you can listen to false talking points from your fellow camp members like Thunder.

When falsehoods like this are spread, we no longer take anything said by the elite seriously. Further, you guys are delusional if you think somebody else other than Miss. Angle would have beaten Mr. Reid.

To answer Pablo's, loaded, question...the reason there is not a credible Tea Party candidate is because none of the candidates(except for maybe Gingrich) have a history of following the spirit of the movement. No Tea Partier is running for the Presidency...there are candidates that have attempted to be Tea Party but there are none that were Tea Party before the movement arose.

Also Pablo, Cain has reportedly raised 9 million dollars in the 4th quarter so I wouldn't use money in your reasoning of why he won't win the nomination - don't get me wrong - he won't win the nomination but I don't think money will be a reason why.

Quite frankly, we should be asking ourselves why the party cannot recruit better people to run for President...the entire field is lacking and I don't see one candidate that could win next fall.

I also don't understand how some of these 2nd and 3rd tier candidates are still in this thing? I mean seriously...it is time for Huntsman, Bachmann and Santorum to go. I guess they believe that it might be there turn to be the flavor of the week after Cain implodes...or at least when his numbers prove he had imploded.

It looks like Cain will implode and Gingrich will pick up his slack...making it a Romney vs. Gingrich match up. If the Tea Party gets behind Gingrich and the Bushies get behind Romney...you will see an all out struggle for the control of the party.

Or everybody stays in...with the ever evolving clout of the right wing blogs...enough support could be garnered for Perry, Gingrich and Cain to stay in this thing. If everybody splits the early states and Super Tuesday, this fight could go all the way to the convention...

Thanks OJ and DOug, I am doing just fine. Concentrating on my work...and still secretly hoping that Palin will reconsider...SHH don't tell anybody.

Doug, I, personally, am tired of the party apparatus. I think the party needs a shake up. I also think a brokered convention would keep the news story on the Republicans side. The media and the Obama Administration would have a harder time pin pointing who the nominee might be...leading to an opportunity to avoid months upon months of mud slinging on one specific candidate.

Also, just so it's duly noted...I am not in any camp right now. If I get a chance to vote in my primary, today my choice would be Gingrich. Most likely I will just vote for whoever the nominee is in the General.

BTW, I'm still hoping it's not Romney but it would be a lot easier for me to vote for Romney than it would be to vote for Cain or Perry.